New York, NY – When a constituent came into Assemblyman Michael DenDekker’s office recently and suggested he propose a cigarette butt recycling program, Mr. DenDekker admits he “had a little chuckle.” Then a staffer, half joking, suggested a cigarette butt deposit, just as is done with bottles. But before completely dismissing the idea, Mr. DenDekker agreed “to see if there is a market on it.”
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A little Googling and Mr. DenDekker discovered that in China, scientists had found that soaking cigarette butts in water creates a solution that can protect steel pipes used by the oil industry from corroding. In Brazil, a fashion designer, Alexandra Guerrero, cleans cigarette butts, dyes them and spins them with sheep wool into clothing. And in Ohio, an inventor has a patent pending to turn cigarette butts into adhesives and sealants.
Now two weeks later, Mr. DenDekker, a Democrat from Queens, has proposed a bill that would create a statewide cigarette butt recycling program. “There are two reasons to do it,” he said. “One is to create jobs, the other is to clean our environment a little.”
The bill would task the departments of environmental conservation and health to develop the recycling program, and require a minimum one-cent deposit per cigarette.
“I don’t want this to be an unfunded mandate,” said Mr. DenDekker, 48, who smoked for 30 years and now says he doesn’t care if smokers have to pay more. “I’m sorry, but look at the amount of waste that cigarette butts cause in our cities.”
Cigarette butts have immediate dangers and long side effects: small children sometimes pick up them up and eat them; additionally toxins remaining in the butts can leach into the environment and poison fish.
According to Mr. DenDekker’s office, more than 176 million pounds of cigarette butts are discarded each year in this country.
Thomas E. Novotny, a former assistant surgeon general and the head of California’s Cigarette Butt Pollution Project, said he agrees with the goals of the bill but added, “Before New York commits itself to finding new purposes for these butts, we need to remember that they are toxic hazardous waste, not simple litter, and that needs to be the focus of efforts on keeping them out of the environment.”
While cigarette butts may prove to be an untapped resource for future products, establishing a recycling program is very difficult. Mr. Novotny and several others said they did not know of a cigarette recycling program anywhere in the country. Last year, San Francisco levied a 20-cents-a-pack fee on cigarettes to pay for the cost of picking up after smokers, but Philip Morris USA has sued to block it.
Mr. DenDekker’s bill is its infancy. How it would be financed remains unclear; he has not yet secured the support of the chair members of the economic and health committee, but he said, “I don’t think I’ll have a problem getting a senate sponsor.”
He added: “This is something that is going to be a long process. But imagine if we had started cleaning them up 20 years ago.”
In NY the cost of a coffin nail is $.50. Will anyone who is burning their dollars up actually care if it costs an additional cent or if they will save then up to redeem them? One more tax.
That is a very smart idea.
Where i work no one ever cleans the cigarette disposal (?)
there is a build up of a years cigarette butts in there!!
Do they go in the can with the paper or plastic? Do we need a seperate trash can for this latest recycling?
I quit smoking 3 1/2 eels ago and plan to keep it that way so this won’t reall affect me. I’m just lauging at this regardless. I always wondere what you are supposed to do with the cigaret buts when your done smoking. I mean I guess it’s technically littering to throw it on the floor, but what else am I supposed to do, put them in my pocket?! Well, I guess not only will we have to save the butts we will also have to put them in a special bin! And this guy thinks it will work…
Recycling butts should be mandatory. Anyone who throws a butt on the ground should get fined. I don’t know why cigarette smokers think their butts aren’t garbage. They’re always throwing them on the ground and it looks disgusting. It’s no different than littering with candy wrappers or any other trash. I live behind a shul and the smokers their drop their butts near my fence and they’re always in my yard and I think it’s disgusting that they have no regard for other people’s feelings, and property.
will we start seeing homeless people with huge bags full of cigarett butts, like the cans!?!?!?!
#4 , right, next thing you tax guru will recommend is a specially designed truck that sniffs out all the butts. from the garbage. we’ll have architects design a truck where we will have to college grads with a masters degree soo we dont degrade those people driving these trucks and we’ll pay them 150K a year plus union fees. Now if that wont make you happy, you’ll have to purchase brown garbage cans which if not full by weekend, will have an inspector ripping open all your other garbage bags to find where you might have hidden your butt! and finally Gotcha! I put a butt in your green garbage (where all the leaves go). I give you a fine. taxes again. (dont forget that supervisors that check your garbage was a surgical doctor but for some odd reason the city offered him more for doing surgery on garbage bags, paid by you and me).
as for #6 you are the most selfish man on the face of the planet! you dont like the stench, I dont either. But to go out and even see it that way, is just selfish. what else dont you like next to the shul next to your house, you litvishe bum!
So next will be a bill for gum to.